A study involving 8,500 teenagers from all social backgrounds found thai most of them are ignorani when it comes to money. The findings, the first in a scries of reports from NatWesl that has started a five-year research project into teenagers and money, arc particularly worrying as this generation of young people is likely to be burdened with greater debts man any before.

University tuition fees (学费) are currently capped at ??3,000 annually, but this will be reviewed next year and the Government is under enormous pressure to raise the ceiling.

In the research, the teenagers were presented with die terms of four different loans but 76 per cent failed to identify the cheapest. The young people also predicted that they would be earning on average ?? 31.000 by the age of 25, although the average salary for those aged 22 to 29 is just ?? 17,815. The teenagers expected to be in debt when they finished university or training, although half said that they assumed the debts would be less than ?? 10.000. Average debts for graduates are ?? 12，363.

Stephen Moir, head of community investment at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group which owns NatWest, said. "The more exposed young people are to financial issues, and the younger they become aware of them, the more likely they arc to become responsible, forward-planning adults who manage their finances confidently and effectively."

Ministers are deeply concerned about the financial pressures on teenagers and young people because of student loans and rising housing costs. They have just introduced new lessons in how to manage debts. Nikki Fairweathcr. aged 15. from St Helens, said that she had benefited from lessons on personal finance, but admitted thai she still had a lot to learn about money.

Which of the following can be found from the five-year research project?

A. Students understand personal finances differently. 

B. University tuition fees in England have been rising.

C. Teenagers tend to overestimate their future earnings.

D. The students' payback ability has become a major issue.

 The phrase "to raise the ceiling" in paragraph 2 probably means "______".

A. to raise the student loans                             

B. to improve the school facilities

C. to increase the upper limit of the tuition     

D. to lift the school building roofs

According to Stephen Moir, students_______.

A. are too young 10 be exposed 10 financial issues

B. should learn 10 manage their finances well

C- should maintain a positive attitude when facing loans

D. benefit a lot from lessons on personal finance

What can we learn from the passage?

A. Many British teenagers do not know money matters well

B. Teenagers in Britain are heavily burdened with debts.

C. Financial planning is a required course at college.

D. Young people should become responsible adults.

Some futurologists have assumed that the vast increase of women in the workforce may portend（预示）an increase in divorce. The opposite of this concern is that the outlook of becoming a multi-paycheck household could encourage marriage. The earning ability of a woman can make her more attractive as a marriage partner.

The increase in divorce rates follows to the increase in women working outside the home. Yet, it may be wrong to jump to any simple cause-and-effect conclusions. The effect of a wife’s work on divorce is no less cloudy than its effect on marriage decisions. The realization that she can be a good provider may increase the chances that a working wife will choose divorce over an unsatisfactory marriage. But the reverse is equally reasonable. Tensions grounded in financial problems often play a key role in ending a marriage. By raising a family’s standard of living, a working wife may strengthen her family’s financial and emotional stability.

Psychological factors also should be considered. For example, a wife blocked from a career outside the home may feel caged in the house. She may view her only choice as seeking a divorce. On the other hand, if she can find fulfillment through work outside the home, work and marriage can go together to create a stronger and more stable union.

A working wife may rob a husband of being the master of the house. Meanwhile, an attractive woman who finds her value in work may play an important role in a stable marriage. Depending upon how the couple reacts to these new conditions, it could create a stronger equal partnership or it could create new insecurities.

If women find fulfillment through work outside the home, _________.

A. they are more likely to control their marriage partners

B. their husbands are expected to do more housework

C. their marriage ties can be strengthened

D. they tend to put their career before marriage

One reason why women with no career may seek a divorce is that ________.

A. they feel that they have been robbed of their freedom

B. they are afraid of being bossed around by their husbands

C. they feel that their partners fail to live up to their expectations

D. they tend to suspect their husbands loyalty to their marriage

Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?

Which of the following statements can best summarize the author’s view in the passage?

A. The stability of marriage and the divorce rate may reflect the economic social position of women.

B. Even when economically independent, most women have to struggle for real equality in marriage.

C. In order to secure their marriage women should work outside the home and remain independent.

D. The effect of the growing female workforce on marriage varies from case to case.

Next Hot Language to Study: Chinese

The fourth-graders at Chicago’s McCormick Primary School are unaware of the difficulty in learning Chinese. For most, who speak Spanish at home, it’s becoming their third language. They’ve been learning and using Chinese words since kindergarten, and it’s now second nature to give a hearty “ni hao” when strangers enter the classroom.

The classroom scene at McCormick is unusual, but it may soon be a common fixture(固定物) in American schools, where Chinese is rapidly becoming the hot new language. Government officials have long wanted more focus on security—useful languages like Chinese, and pressure from them—as well as from business leaders, politicians, and parents—has driven a quick growth in the number of programs.

Chicago itself is home to the largest effort to include Chinese in US public schools. The program here has grown to include 3,000 students in 20 schools, with more schools on a waiting list. Programs have also spread to places like Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and North Carolina. It’s true that the number of students learning Chinese is tiny compared with how many study Spanish or French.

Advocates (提倡者，拥护者) see knowledge of the Chinese language and culture as a help in a global economy where China is growing in importance. “This is an interesting way to begin to engage with the world’s next superpower,” says Michael Levine, director of education at the Asia Society, which has started five new public high schools that offer Chinese. “Globalization（全球化) has already changed the arrangements in terms of how children today are going to need to think about their careers… The question is, when not whether, the schools are going to adjust.”

In Chicago, the trend extends beyond schools with high numbers of Asian students. “The fact that my students are 98% low income and 99% Latino(拉丁美洲人) and they are succeeding in this, tells me everyone should have a try at learning languages,” says Virginia Rivera, principal at McCormick.“We want to give our young people opportunities to advance… and Chinese is a great opportunity to survive in today’s economy,” says Richard M. Daley, Mayor of Chicago.

The first paragraph is mainly written to _______.

A. show the importance of Chinese learning  

B. introduce the topic to be followed

C. advise primary schools to teach Chinese   

D. prove it’s easy for children to learn language

How many languages are mentioned in this passage?

A. Six.                  B. Two.      

C. Three.                D. Four.

In the last paragraph, the underlined word “this ”probably refers to _____.

A. the competition between Latino and Asian students  

B. the global economy  

C. the interesting way to engage with China  

D. the Chinese learning

What CANNOT be learned from this passage?

A. Most students at McCormick can speak three languages.

B. Chinese is gaining its popularity in all schools in Chicago.

C. French has far more speakers than Chinese does in Chicago.

D. Globalization in a way makes it necessary to learn Chinese.

Which of the following is mainly about in this passage?

A. The Chinese learning in Chicago.  

B. The ways to learn Chinese.

C. McCormick Primary School.      

D. Globalization and Chinese learning.

Sorry to say,our brains naturally start slowing down at the Cruelty young age of 30.It used to be thought that this couldn’t be helped,but new studies show that people of any age can train their brains to work faster.“Your brain is a learning machine,”saying University of California scientist Dr. Michael Merzenich.Given the right tools,we can train our brains to act like they did when we were younger.All that’s required is the practice designed just for the purpose:a few exercises for the mind.

Merzenich has developed a computer-based training method to speed up the process(过程) in which the brain deals with information (positscience.com).Since much of the data we receive comes through speech,the Brain Fitness Program works with language and hearing to better speed and accuracy(准确性).

Over the course of training,the program starts asking you to distinguish(辨别) sounds (between“dog”and“bog”,for example) at an increasingly faster speed.It’s a bit like tennis instructor,says Merzenich,hitting balls at you—faster and faster to keep you challenged(受到挑战).You may start out slow,but before long you’re pretty quick.

The biggest finding in brain research in the last ten years is that the brain at any age is highly plastic.If you ask your brain to learn,it will learn.And it may even speed up while in the process.

To keep your brain young and plastic you can do one of a million new activities that challenge and excite you:playing table tennis or bridge,doing crossword puzzles,learning a language...“When it comes to preventing ageing,you really do ‘use it or lose it’,”says Barbara Sahakian,professor at Cambridge University.

Dr.Merzenich’s training method mainly depends on ______.

A.speech training

B.computer languages

C.the activities one joins in

D.the information being dealt with

By saying “the brain at any age is highly plastic”,the writer probably means the brain can be ______.

A.used                                                            B.mastered

C.developed                                                     D.researched

What can we learn from the text?

A.Practice makes a quick mind.

B.Brain research started ten years ago.

C.Dr. Merzenich is a scientist in computer.

D.People believed nothing could stop the brain slowing down.

Which of the following agrees with the writer’s idea?

A.The training methods work better for the old.

B.People should use the brain to stop it from ageing.

C.The training of the brain should start at an early age.

D.It’s necessary to take part in as many activities as possible.

Parents and kids today dress alike, listen to the same music, and are friends. Is this a good thing? Sometimes, when Mr. Ballmer and his 16-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, listen to rock music together and talk about interests both enjoy, such as pop culture, he remembers his more distant relationship with his parents when he was a teenager.

“I would never have said to my mom, ‘Hey, the new Weezer album is really great. How do you like it?’” says Ballmer. “There was just a complete gap in taste.”

Music was not the only gulf. From clothing and hairstyles to activities and expectations, earlier generations of parents and children often appeared to move in separate orbits.

Today, the generation gap has not disappeared, but it is getting narrow in many families. Conversations on subjects such as sex and drugs would not have taken place a generation ago. Now they are comfortable and common. And parent—child activities, from shopping to sports, involve a feeling of trust and friendship that can continue int0 adulthood.

No wonder greeting cards today carry the message, “To my mother, my best friend.”

But family experts warn that the new equality can also result in less respect for parents. “There’s still a lot of strictness and authority on the part of parents out there, but there is a change happening,” says Kerrie, a psychology professor at Lebanon Valley College. “In the middle of that change, there is a lot of confusion among parents.”

Family researchers offer a variety of reasons for these evolving roles and attitudes. They see the 1960s as a turning point. Great cultural changes led to more open communication and a more democratic process that encourages everyone to have a say.

“My parents were on the ‘before’ side of that change, but today’s parents, the 40-year-olds, were on the  ‘after’ side,” explains Mr. Ballmer. “It’s not something easily accomplished by parents these days, because life is more difficult to understand or deal with, but sharing interests does make it more fun to be a parent now.”

The underlined word gulf in Para.3 most probably means _________.

A. interest             B. distance             C. difference          D. separation

Which of the following shows that the generation gap is disappearing?

A. Parents help their children develop interests in more activities.

B. Parents put more trust in their children’s abilities.

C. Parents and children talk more about sex and drugs.

D. Parents share more interests with their children.

By saying “today’s parents, the 40-year-olds, were on the ‘after’ side.” the author means that today’s parents _________.

A. follow the trend of the change         B. can set a limit to the change

C. fail to take the change seriously              D. have little difficulty adjusting to the change

The purpose of the passage is to _________.

A. describe the difficulties today’s parents have met with

B. discuss the development of the parent—child relationship

C. suggest the ways to handle the parent—child relationship

D. compare today’s parent—child relationship with that in the past